Decorative Items | Art Nouveau & Art Deco | Other | Stock No: 11896

Antique Handley Page 42 Two Blade Propeller in Mahogany

A rare Handley Page HP 1930's two bladed aircraft propeller. Two of these very large laminated mahogany propellers were fitted on each of the four Bristol Jupiter XIF radial engines of this early Imperial Airways Airliner which carried 24 passengers and 4 crew in 500 mile hops cruising at 100mph. Initially these four classically named behemoths reached in up to 28 stages destinations as far as Karachi in then India. Later based in Cairo they were to provide the ultimate long distance connection to South Africa and eventually to Australia. From a private collection of early aeroplane propellers.English 1930's.

With the names Hanno, Hannibal, Hadrian and Horsa there were four of these rather impressive clippers of the skies on Imperial Airways', later B.O.A.C., intercontinental run. They, their crews and ground staff were pioneers using what now is seen as elementary Boy's Own technology but whose personnel, installations and expertise were used to great advantage when war came in the 1940's and a flood of military aircraft were ferried from the Canadian and American factories over the Caribean and South America to the North African, Far and Near East theaters of the war.